Macro Attempt

I’ve always been a fan of macro photography. I had many attempts on doing it with a regular digital camera but I know I couldn’t get very close unlike with a macro lens. Henry, my Sony A200, did not have much accessories since they are out of budget. Now that I have Ben (my Nikon D3100), I decided to get him some macro extension tubes.

Bought this one from an online photo supplier for P350. Coming in that price, I did not expect much out of it. I only wanted to take closer photos for now and try it out. But I did not know that it would be this complicated. Hehe Thinking that I should just attach it to the body and lens, no other aberya should come up. That is where I am mistaken.

I tried to use it for the first time after a couple of days that I had it. I am careful with handling it and made sure not to accidentally twist the lens. But when it came to detaching it, there came the problem. It was easy to unlock the tubes from the body but I can’t seem to unlock the tubes from the lens. Twisted here, twisted there. Forced pull on the lever but it did nothing. I did some search on the net and found out that it is the common downside from these tubes. They usually get stuck and having no optical elements it is hard to focus. All it really did is to extend and let you come closer to your subject (thus the name! >.<)

There is a screw on the tube which, at first look, does nothing. Surprisingly, this screw serves as a lock. You have to push it down (like a shutter release button) and twist the tubes a little to loose it. Make sure that it is not screwed all the way down so you have room to press on the tube. Once you did this, it will unlock and all you have to do is twist the tubes towards you. #struggle

I also tried on some shots. This is where more struggles happened. Hehe It seems that the tubes only work in Manual mode with manual focus. Is that right or am i missing something? I can’t also seem to adjust the aperture value so I went for around 1/10 shutter with flash. Heh. It is prompting that subject is dark daw kasi hehe. Here are some photos that I took:

This is a Sili – shaped keychain, size of a small flash disk.

25 centavo coin. I had around 10 shots of it and only this and other 2 came out okay. >.<

My kit lens cap. This is so-so, I know it could get better.

I’m kinda frustrated but I am patient. I know I need to practice more and figure out how to properly use it. If there are photography enthusiasts reading this, I could really use some advice with manual focusing. I understand kit lens do not have manual aperture settings, but are there ways to efficiently use these tubes on it? Hopefully, I can get some help. Thanks in advance and wish me luck with my macro venture! 😀